


Heroes and Heroines

by Missy



Category: Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Introspection, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-23 00:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11391390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Michaela looks to the future.





	Heroes and Heroines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wendymypooh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wendymypooh/gifts).



> Written for a Fandom Stocking request!

Michaela has been told more than once that she could retire if she wishes. She’s a (ravishing, Sully tells her repeatedly as they escort Katie to another dance, watching teenagers dance country reels and waltzes a ruler-length apart and quite sturdy and firmly constitutioned enough to pull a bullet from a screaming man’s shoulder, thank you very much) fifty-year old working woman, a doctor who still has a thriving patient base, a doctor who leads the town with strong-willed, almost effortless panache. 

She supposes the key is refusing to let herself stagnate. She kept in contact with those who needed her the most. At every town council meeting she was front and center, dispensing advice and staying on the side of the righteous. When the town put in electric lights, when it developed a proper sewer system to replace the outhouses, when they sprouted a theater and when they had to make sure there were funds enough to support their expansion plans - even when carts and wheeled machines began to replace horses on the city’s streets – Doc Michaela was there, offering her wisdom and her opinions. Much to the regret of the younger folks who had taken up the city’s governance as time passed by.

She supposes she’ll be there still in her twilight years, sitting front row center in her best, with Grace and with Theresa, listening to the young folks argue about what the best thing would be for their quiet little two horse home and speaking up whenever ignorance or intolerance dared rear their ugly but familiar heads. Sully is right there beside her, his smile thin but wide. He knows by now that whatever Mike says usually makes the most sense and is best for those around them, not that he doesn’t get to have his own say, or that she would ever shout him down. They are their best allies, the bolsters that keep the evils of the world at the doorstep. Their marriage is one some folks just refuse to understand, and that’s fine with her. Long ago she gave up on trying to win the approval of those who tried to press social morays upon the downtrodden.

There’s not much that keeps her or draws her back toward the eastern seaboard these days – the children come out west when they want to visit, and they all want to visit, at least once a year, most if time permits. She has thick stacks of letters that fly back and forth so frequently that Sully jokes that they ought to buy stock in the Pony Express. Brian she worries the most for – he’s conducting an investigation on the Tammany Hall types who’ve been poisoning Boston’s gubernatorial elections, and times are dangerous for him yet he walks with a level of iron clad righteousness that gives her a shock of pride just to read of him. Her Colleen has continued her work in Boston, helping the poor, ministering to them. There had been a cholera epidemic a few weeks ago which had forced them both to renege on their promise to come for Easter – they’d be by this summer, with luck, and with a grandchild for her to dandle. She and Andrew did what they could. Mathew had his own ranch land in Montana, and a growing family to support; he came frequently, too frequently, to stay with the children at Mike and Sully’s homestead – he seemed lonely to his mother, and she hoped fervently that he’d find another woman to love, having lost true love twice in his lifetime. 

Retirement. The very word she rejects. Who needs to be retired when you’re so thoroughly needed, when you have this much to accomplish and so many friends to care for?


End file.
